Stoke City are recovering from another halftime ruck this week.

The Daily Mail says two Stoke City players had to be pulled off each other by astonished team-mates at Chelsea on Sunday as Tony Pulis's squad witnessed its second dressing-room punch-up of the season.

The pair went head-to-head at half-time of the seven-goal rout after a war of words descended into a brawl.

Midfielder Glenn Whelan and defender Abdoulaye Faye were at the centre of the fracas as passions spilled over with the side three down at the interval.

It is not the first time Pulis has experienced problems with his squad - he himself was at the centre of a heated confrontation in December with striker James Beattie.

Whelan was upset at the manner in which his skipper, Faye, had approached the fixture at the home of the Champions-elect.

The Irishman was fuming at his colleague's allegedly lackadaisical approach in the warm-up.

And when Faye was substituted after nine minutes following a muscle strain, the midfielder's ire was fuelled further.

Whelan let rip when the teams returned to the dressing-room at half-time. Faye, a 6ft 2in defender who has carved out a career as a no-nonsense centre-half, clearly wasn't in the mood to discuss the issue and flew at his critic.

The two then had to be separated by team-mates as an astonished Pulis and his backroom team looked on.

A source confirmed the incident last night, saying: "Their passion got the better of them. It happens."